Various methods are known in the related art to detect open parking areas for vehicles with the aid of distance based sensors (e.g., ultrasonic sensors, laser sensors, radar sensors, stereo video cameras, etc.). Such methods are known for example from DE 10 2004 062 021 A1, DE 10 2009 028 024 A1, and DE 10 2008 028 550 A1.
A variety of driver assistance systems are used in the automotive field, which are intended to assist the driver with carrying out various driving maneuvers. These include, for example, parking assistance systems which, with the aid of sensors assigned to the vehicle, detect the surroundings, ascertain possible parking spaces in the surroundings, and assist the driver during parking.
A method for reporting a free parking spot for a vehicle is discussed in DE 10 2014 009 627 A1. It is provided to identify free parking spaces with the aid of vehicle-internal sensors and with the aid of attributes such as length, width, height, angle, type, and geographical position. A free parking space is also established when a previously occupied parking spot is cleared. Additionally, further sensors may be used to identify traffic signs, for example to consider pieces of information from signage. Moreover, a linkage to a digital road map is additionally provided to preclude the use of areas which are situated too close to an intersection, for example. Relevant parking spots are reported to other vehicles, with either a direct communication between two vehicles or a central server being used for this purpose.
A method for identifying at least one parking spot for a motor vehicle is discussed in DE 10 2013 018 721 A1. In the method, an occupancy grid is created, into which sensor data of at least one distance-measuring sensor are entered. Based on the sensor data, objects are identified and subsequently classified, for example as a car class and as a non-car class. This makes it possible to identify a gated entrance, for example, since generally no parking automobile is identified in the vicinity of such a gated entrance.
A method for identifying parking spaces based on collected GPS data is discussed in WO 2012/019628 A1. GPS data of a navigation system are superimposed on a digital map, clusters which point to possible parking spaces being displayed. Data on the parking space, such as the type of the parking space or the average parking duration, are extracted from the collected data.